USS John S. McCain conducts operation near China-held island

MANILA, Philippines — A U.S. warship sailed close to a Chinese man-made island in the disputed South China Sea, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

Two Chinese frigates and a Chinese coast guard vessel shadowed the USS John S. McCain as it sailed in a freedom of navigation operation within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef Thursday. A U.S. P-3 patrol plane flew overhead.

Nothing happened that the U.S. Navy considers unsafe or unprofessional, Martin reports.

China, which claims the South China Sea virtually in entirety, has protested such repeated U.S. military operations, which President Trump’s administration has continued partly to reassure allies locked in territorial rifts with Beijing.